


Nom de Plume

by Abagail_Snow



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Humor, Romance, fan fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-22
Updated: 2014-03-22
Packaged: 2018-01-16 13:19:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1348864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Abagail_Snow/pseuds/Abagail_Snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Katniss Everdeen loves the pairing of Finnick Odair and Annie Cresta more than anything, and that's starting to become a problem.  Based on the book Fangirl.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nom de Plume

Katniss stared at the blank Word document, the cursor flashing like an impatient reminder.  She began to type.

_Winter was coming, and although the cold never quite reached the kingdom in the Fourth_

She held down the backspace key until all the characters had disappeared.  Her e-mail alert pinged, and she cringed when she saw that another review had been posted.

_This is really great.  I hope you continue it!_

It had been a month since she had updated.  Had it really been that long?  When she first began writing, she could post a chapter every day!  Now it felt like pulling teeth.

Annie Cresta would have to spend another day trapped in the sea.  Or year, at the rate she was writing it.

Katniss closed the lid to her laptop and stretched to crack her stiff limbs.  There wasn't any light filtering through their window except for the golden artificial glow of the street lamps.  Was it already night?  She confirmed the time on her phone.  8:30, where had the day gone?

As if on cue, the door sprang open and her roommate, Delly Cartwright, came bouncing through.  She had a large shopping bag, which she deposited on her lofted bed, and as usual, Peeta Mellark came shuffling in after her.

"Katniss, have you even left the room?" Delly huffed, revealing a new sweater from the shopping bag and clipping off the tags.  "It smells like empanadas again."

"Sorry," Katniss said, fishing her discarded takeout container from her desk side trashcan.  "I meant to toss it in the trash room, but--"

"It was soooo far?" Delly filled in. 

She flushed slightly.  "Yeah."

"You don't have to get takeout all the time you know," Delly said, placing her hands on her hips.  "You should come eat with us sometimes.  Peeta's great company if you just ignore him."

Peeta had hoisted himself onto Delly's bed and tapped her playfully with his foot at the insult.

"Maybe," Katniss said, although she had no intention of following through.

"We're going to an 80's party tonight," she said holding the sweater up against her chest.  "Does this look 80's to you?"

Katniss glanced at it briefly.  "Sure?"

"It looks Saved by the Bell to me," Peeta chimed in.  "That's the 90's."

"Late 80's -- early 90's, it's the same thing, right?"  Delly said breezily. 

"All I'm saying, is if they refuse you at the door, I told you so," he said.  Already anticipating Delly's assault, he held his hands up in a defensive maneuver, catching the sweater when she whipped it at him.

"I hate you," she seethed with as much anger as Delly could muster, which was never much.  She turned back to Katniss.  "Do you want to come to the party?  We're not leaving for another hour or two, so there's plenty of time."

Katniss's eyes widened.  "Um, no.  Thanks though," she added, so that she didn't sound so rude.

"Think about it, okay?  Peeta and I don't really drink if that's what you're worried about."

Katniss looked at Peeta and then back to Delly.  She was more uncomfortable about being the third wheel than anything, but neither of them ever seemed to grasp that.  It was weird enough that they spent so much time in her dorm room while Katniss was there.  She always insisted on going to the library to give them some privacy, but they were always only studying, and sometimes for the same classes as her, although Katniss was in a different section.

"I have to work in the morning, so..." she reasoned.

"Well if you change your mind," Delly said with a shrug.  "I'm going to shower," she added, gathering her towel off the hook along with her caddy.  She tugged on Peeta's sock on her way out of the room, giving him one last playful scowl.  Then, as usual, Katniss was left alone with him.

Katniss sat in her desk chair, her shoulders tense knowing that he was sitting there, behind her.  She opened the lid to her laptop and tried to type.

Her fingertips ghosted against the keys, but she couldn't help feeling like he was reading over her shoulder, even though he was on the other side of the room.  She couldn't take it anymore.

She fumed silently, letting her eyes slip shut to calm her temper, but she couldn't take it.  "Don't you have your own room?" she snapped.

Peeta was busy with something on his phone and lifted his eyebrows curiously, as if she could have been addressing someone else in the room.  "Yeah," he said.  "It's a single though.  It gets kind of lonely."

Katniss let out an incredulous snort.  "Really?  You don't say?"  She could barely remember what it was like to be alone since Delly and Peeta were always breathing down her neck.

"It's all the way on the east campus too.  Most of my classes are on this side."

She couldn't argue with that.  The better dining hall was here too.  But she wasn't about to admit it.  She turned back to her computer and noticed a new e-mail.

_I'm going to need you to update like yesterday, ktnxbye_

She dropped her face into her hands.

"What are your plans for tonight?"  Peeta said.

She groaned.  "Nothing," she mumbled into her palms.

"What are you writing?"

She lifted her head to glance over her shoulder.  He was looking at her screen.  "Nothing," she repeated more sharply.  He seemed to take a hint, and there was a long blissful moment of silence.

"You're a writer though, right?" he asked her abruptly.

She felt her heart stop, and her cheeks immediately flashed red with heat.  "Not really," she said tightly, refusing to turn and face him.  "I'm not majoring in it, if that's what you're asking."

"But you write like all the time."

She closed her word processor.  "For fun," she said, searching for a carefree tone but landing on a stonewall defensive one.

"Do you write fanfic or something?"

"What?" she nearly shouted, her indignation surely giving way to her lies.

"It's cool if you do," he said.  "I think I found you, actually."

She wanted to die.  To break off the metal security bar on her window and fall to her second story death.

"I don't think so."

"Ode2Odesta?" he read off his phone.  "The icon is the same as your desktop," he pointed at her computer to verify.

"Why were you looking at Odesta fanfic?"

"I saw the movies," he said.

"Books," she snapped.

"It seemed like you really liked them," he reasoned.  "What is Odesta?  A blend of Odair and Cresta?  That's clever."

"I didn't come up with it," she said, feeling even more embarrassed now that he was complimenting her for her weird habit.  "You didn't read any of it, did you?"

"Maybe," he said carefully.  "I won't read anymore if you don't want me to."

Her eyes widened.  "Please don't."  Now she couldn't stop thinking about which one he could have read.  Her most popular story was fairly harmless, keeping within the censorship of a YA novel, but that one was nearly 200,000 words.  There were a few one shots based on missing scenes and movie crossovers that she wouldn't be too embarrassed about, but most of her shorter stories were kind of... graphic.

"Fine, okay, if that's what you want," he said, sounding surprisingly disappointed.  "It was fun seeing a different side to you."

She couldn't help but take that as a slight.  "It's stupid," she said.  "I don't even know why I do it."

"It's really good," he said.  "I'm not much of a reader, but you pulled me right in.  I read half of your Little Mermaid one last night."

Hearing him say the words out loud somehow made it worse.  "You shouldn't bother," she said.  "I'm probably never going to finish it."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said anything, I didn't mean to embarrass you."  His voice was so sincere she almost believed him.  "You always seem to be lost somewhere in your own world, and you don't like any of the stuff Delly and I do... I thought you might be getting lonely."

"I'm fine," she mumbled.  She had her beta and a few readers and other writers who had become somewhat close friends, even though she'd never met them in person.

"Don't you get tired of living someone else's life though?"

"Not really."  Her characters could do and say everything she was afraid to do herself.

"There are some things that are hard to describe if you've never done them before."

"Like what?"

"I don't know," he said, when he obviously knew exactly what he was talking about.   "Getting drunk.  Sitting in a diner until 3AM with your friends.  Falling in love..." he looked away.  Now he was starting to look uncomfortable.  He rubbed the back of his neck and cringed.  "It kind of seemed like a virgin was writing it."

Her jaw dropped.  "I've had sex," she said.

"Was it ever good?"

She scoffed at him.  She refused to answer that.

"I'm sorry, you just use these weird phrases like 'their tongues battled for dominance.'  What does that even mean?  Did you guys have basement parties with tongue wars or something?"

"It's a common expression."

"Sure. Okay," he said.

She rolled her eyes.  She really hated him now.

"I'm only suggesting that maybe a little more worldly experience would do you good."

"Like slapping on some spandex, teasing my hair, and chugging a liter of cherry vodka until I'm nice and lubricated for the Sigma Chi's to pass around?  Should I send you the bill for the stomach pumping or would it make a better story if I sold myself into prostitution to pay it off?"

"God, I didn't mean it like that.  Not every college party is a Lifetime PSA in disguise.  Sometimes people go out, drink responsibly, have a good time, and are safely back in bed in time for work in the morning.  That's all I'm trying to say."

"And sometimes people spend time in their own dorm rooms instead of harassing their girlfriend's roommate all the time.  Why don't you take your own advice and go build some life experience with her instead of bugging me."

He looked utterly perplexed.  "Delly isn't my girlfriend," was all he said in response.

The door swung open and Delly appeared, towel drying her hair.  "Should I put mousse in now, or does it need to dry more?  Katniss do you know?"  She paused, her eyes darting between Katniss and Peeta as she measured the temperament of the room.  "Is everything okay?"

Katniss used the distraction as an opportunity to escape.  She slipped her laptop under her arm and darted towards the open door.  "I'm going to the library," she mumbled before the door shut behind her.

 

* * *

_Finnick Odair was pompous and arrogant to a fault.  He thought he could charm the world with a single smile.  And maybe he could.  But he'd yet to break the steely resolve of Annie Cresta._

_She was a loner.  Preferring the quiet breeze of the sea to the company of the Fourth Kindom's adorers, and that was something that Finnick simply could not comprehend._

_He'd sit beside her from time to time, desperate to see into her world.  But the stories that played were ones that only she could hear, and they made her happy._

_"Don't you ever get lonely?" he asked her._

_Her eyes were large and round and as green as the sea, but unbeknownst to him, she couldn't speak a word of her truths.  Not with the evil Lord Snow holding her tongue captive._

_Finnick was growing impatient with her, though.  The only way to break the spell would be to win his love without the aid of her voice.  She'd have to show him.  Have to make him see._

_She slipped her fingers through the coral string necklace wrapped around his neck and drew his face to hers, touching his lips as soft as a whisper with her own._

* * *

Katniss didn't see Peeta much after their argument.  Whenever Delly made her brief appearances between classes and meals, she was always solo, and when she'd invite Katniss to meals, she'd specify that Peeta wouldn't be there.

It seemed like such a silly thing to be fighting over.  "He didn't like my fanfic," she'd repeat in her head as if that carried any meaning.  But the truth was, she knew he was right, although he'd come about it in the worst possible way.

Katniss was a hermit.  She needed to get out more.  She knew that.  She just didn't know how.

Her inbox updated with a new review from "pmellark-er-anon."

_So glad you continued this.  That Finnick Odair sure can be an ass sometimes.  Maybe some day he'll learn._

It seemed like an odd thing to say, but from Peeta, "odd" didn't surprise her anymore.  Still, she opened up her last update and scanned through it quickly, slowing when she reached the end of the passage.

He thought she was writing about him.  She read it again, and then a third time.  Some of the dialogue was close to the conversation they had had, but that didn't make Peeta her Finnick.  She scrolled through it one last time.  When she wrote most of this update she was still seething from their fight.  Maybe she let some of her emotions cloud her writing, but she wasn't writing about him.

She opened the latest draft of her new chapter and began typing, deleting it all when she realized she was still thinking about Peeta.  She needed to get him out of her head.

Checking the time on her phone, she decided it wasn't too late to take Delly up on her invite to dinner.  It would be good to clear her thoughts, even if it required polite small talk with the rest of Delly's friends.  And it would be a good exercise in becoming more social.

She swiped her dining card at the register and grabbed a tray for once instead of a Styrofoam takeout.  The line for made-to-order quesadillas was too long, so she opted for pizza instead, grabbing a slice of everything before searching for Delly's table.

She was sitting with Bristel and Levy and Madge from their floor, Katniss saw with a sigh of relief.  There was even an empty seat left, but before she could make her way to it, there was Peeta, setting his tray down and sitting in her chair.

She turned fast and hurried back towards the pile of takeout containers.

"Katniss?  Is that you?" Delly called out.  She was waving frantically to catch her attention.  "Come sit with us, we'll make room."

Katniss eyed Peeta.  "I have to head back to our room," she lied.  "I just remembered I have to submit a paper."

"It's 6:03," Delly said.  "When's the drop box going to close?  6:07?  Don't be ridiculous, come sit down."

Katniss acquiesced and set her tray between Madge's and Bristel's, which she quickly realized was a bad idea, because it sat her directly across from Peeta .  The table was buzzing with gossip from their floor -- who was sleeping with whom, who was a total "bee", who kept clogging the third shower stall.  Katniss contributed a few "I don't know"s and "maybe"s, but nothing too concrete, as she hadn't really been paying attention to anything going on outside of her room.

She rearranged the plates on her tray to stab into her dessert.  It was German Chocolate Cake tonight, which meant it was the usual chocolate cake and chocolate butter cream frosting only with coconut flakes sprinkled on top and a cherry in the middle.

"That's not real German Chocolate Cake," Peeta said, shaking his head with disappointment as she took another bite. 

She had been doing her best to avoid him, and tried not to look too annoyed when he spoke to her.  "Tastes fine to me," she said.

"Because you've never had the real thing.  I'll make you one sometime, then you'll see."

Katniss rolled her eyes.

"Peeta's dad is a baker," Delly explained apologetically.  "He's a total snob about desserts, so don't even listen to him."

Katniss finished her cake and got up to get a second slice.

* * *

_ Beneath the cover of moonlight, Annie slipped her hand between her legs, her fingers conducting a symphony of pleasure as they swirled through her want.  Behind her eyelids, images of his gentle sea eyes and perfect alabaster grin flashed like fireworks. _

_"Peeta," she sighed silently as her body crashed back to her mattress._

* * *

Katniss frantically deleted the last line, her breath quickening as she waited for her racing heart to slow.

She ran a search for his name in the document and was relieved to see it come up empty.  Still.  Why would she accidentally type it?

He had been on her mind more, she supposed, but only because he was insistent on bothering her.  And ever since he'd left that review about Finnick as if it were about him, she couldn't help but see the similarities.  She didn't want to though.

"Hey."

Her eyes darted up to meet his and she snapped her laptop closed.

"Working on something?" he said, slipping into the chair across from her.

Katniss looked at all the empty tables around her.  Friday nights at the library weren't the most popular, but hiding here meant Delly couldn't hassle her about going out.

"No," she said quickly.  "What are you doing here?"

He slipped his laptop from his backpack and set it on the table.  "I've got a paper to finish," he said.  "Is it okay if I sit here?"

She gave a noncommittal shrug.

"Good."  He grinned at her as if she weren't acting so cold towards him.  "It's actually a writing assignment.  I was hoping you could help me maybe."

"I doubt that I'd be helpful," she said, opening her laptop again.

"We're supposed to rewrite the end to our favorite book.  That's right up your alley."

She closed her fic document and went to check her e-mail.  "What's your favorite book?" she said flatly to humor him.

"Would you believe me if I said The Fourth Kingdom?"

She rolled her eyes.

"Don't worry, I'll probably just do Catcher in the Rye or something."

"How original."

"Hey now, it's the book of people who don't care for books.  Don't insult my people."

Katniss saw another review in her inbox from pmellarkanon.  She lifted her eyes to glare at him.  "Please stop reading my story."

"I already told you it was my favorite book."  He sighed when she didn't laugh.  "Okay.  Okay.  I'll stop.  Will you help me now?"

She clicked into her tumblr and saw that there were a bunch of asks regarding her Finnick Odair analysis.  She was too exhausted to get sucked into a fandom war today, especially when she was experiencing another Finn related crisis of her own across the table.

Reluctantly she said, "What do you need help with?"

"How do you make your writing look exactly like the original?"

"It doesn't," she said, shaking her head adamantly.  "I don't even use the right point of view narrative or tense most of the time."  What was he even talking about?  He probably hadn't even read the original books.  He thought it was just a movie, after all.  She went on anyway.  "The original author uses pretty simple syntax, so it isn't hard to mimic.  It's getting the characters right mostly."

"And adding a few breaths you hadn't known you've been holding?" he teased with an arched eyebrow.

She grimaced.  "Do I do that a lot?"

"Not you.  Other people though."

She placed her elbows on the table to lean across it, lowering her voice to ask, "How many fics have you read?"

"A few," he said, and then abruptly moved to mirror her position.  "Tell me.  This thing where Finnick just has to tell Annie to climax and she does.  Is that true?  Because if I knew this trick, I'd have a much higher success rate."

She felt her face turn hot and covered it with her hands.  Then she laughed.  She'd definitely used that one before.  It always seemed sexy in the scene.

"Katniss," he said, waiting for her to look up at him, and when she did, he was staring at her with such seriousness, she almost started laughing again.  "Come for me."  Now they were both laughing.  "Come on," he said.  "Did it work?"

"Oh yeah," she said drily.  She bit back her smile, trying to flatten it back into a scowl, but she was finding the task to be impossible.  "Here," she said, reaching for his computer to angle it towards her.  "Let me see what you have so far."

"That would be nothing."

"How much do you have to write?"

"500 words."

She scoffed.  "Are you kidding?  That's an assignment?"  She could spend 500 words describing the way Finnick drank coffee.  "What were you going to write about?"

He sighed.  "Holden burning down the carnival at the end.  Or is that total psycho bait?"

"No," she looked at him startled.  "That's actually really fitting.  So long as Phoebe were safe."

"She would be, kind of.  She'd have been dead the whole time.  The sequel would be him in a mental institute."

She smiled at him slyly.  "A One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest crossover?"

He scooted his chair around the table so that they could both see the screen.  "I like the way you think."

Peeta was a slow typer, and the ideas they had were flowing so rapidly that Katniss took control of the keys while Peeta recited dialogue.  By the time they had it all written down, the story was over 5000 words.

"I guess I'll just be the over achiever, no big deal," Peeta said as he packed his computer away.  He looked at the time on his phone.  "It's late, let me walk you back."

Katniss could see her dorm from the front entrance of the library.  "Okay," she said anyway.  He escorted her to her room and when he thanked her and wished her a good night, for the first time, she didn't want him to leave.

Delly appeared a moment later.  Her face splotchy from cleaning her makeup.  "Was Peeta here?" she said.  "I thought I saw him in the hall."

"Um, yeah," Katniss said, suddenly feeling shy about the night they'd shared.  "He needed help with something."

"I'm really sorry if he's still bugging you," Delly said with an annoyed sigh.  "He's got this huge crush on you and I keep telling him that you're not interested." 

Katniss didn't know what to say.  The way he'd been acting around her -- she never thought for a second that it was because he liked her.

"I'll talk to him again if you want?"

Katniss felt trapped in a trance.  She blinked a few times then reached for her laptop.  "No.  It's fine," she said, climbing up into her bed and opening the computer lid.

* * *

_"I must be such a bother to you," Finnick Odair said.  He dipped his toe into the clear water, sending sparkling ripples across the surface from the setting sun.  "I should take a hint, really.  All this time I've sat with you and you haven't said a word.  You won't even tell me your name."_

_He moved to stand.  She caught his wrist, giving it an urgent squeeze.  "Stay!" she meant to shout.  "Please, stay with me."_

_He sat back down, his eyes a lit with alarm.  Her name.  She could tell him her name.  She searched the horizon for an answer and it came to her like a spark._

_She pointed at the bend of her leg, taking his hand in hers to tap his finger against it._

_"Knee?" he said.  She nodded.  "Kneeeeeee," he sounded the word on his tongue again to see if it would morph into something else.  His smile brightened with understanding.  "Annie!  Your name is Annie!"_

_She felt like she was dancing on wind, hearing her name from his lips._

_"And mine is," he said bending over to draw an imaginary triangle on his back, a fin, then he gagged and shuttered to say "ick."_

_She twisted her lanky arms around his neck to hug him tightly.  "Annie, my Annie," she could feel him murmur into her hair._

* * *

There were only two dorms on the east side of campus, and she heard Peeta and Delly mention Baker hall before.  "A baker in Baker, how poetic," Delly had said.

The mailboxes were set up the same as in her building, with each row coordinating with the floor the person lived on.  She was able to limit the eight floors down to three by the names, since there weren't any coed floors here.  Peeta lived on the sixth, she finally figured out.

His room was tucked into the corner and there was no question as to whether he was home because the door was propped open with a trashcan.

She tapped on the frame to get his attention.  He had a pad of paper in his lap and was busy sketching.

"Hey," he said with a pleasant smile.  She was obviously the last person he'd expected to see.

"Hey," she said.

"Lost?"

She certainly felt like it.  She shifted awkwardly on her heels then took a few steps inside without asking.  He'd invaded her space often enough, it was her turn to do it for a change.

"What are you drawing?" she said.

He laughed nervously.  "You caught me."  He lifted the pad for her to see.  It was a drawing of Annie and Finnick sitting on the dock.  The one from her story.  "I accidentally immersed myself in the fandom world.  I saw some art that was pretty cool and felt inspired, I guess."

She took the paper, tracing her fingers along the smudged lines.  "You have an incredibly strange way of flirting," she said.

"I assure you, I'm usually much better at this," he said.  "I honestly have no idea how to talk to you.  I was just looking for a way to relate -- you're kind of terrifying, you know."

"Sorry."

"Did this Snow guy cast an evil spell on you too?"  

"Sometimes it feels that way," she said.  She leaned against his desk and handed the drawing back to him.

"And what did you lose because of it?" he said.

"The power of perception, maybe.  I didn't realize -- I didn't know that you liked me."

"Because you thought that I was with Delly," he filled in.

"No.  Because I thought you were being a jerk to me.  I thought you were making fun of me."

"I wasn't.  Really."  He tapped on the paper in her hand for emphasis.  "If you couldn't tell yet."

"I've got that now."  She set the drawing down and gripped the edge of his desk.  "I like you too," she admitted.

He lifted both brows in surprise, and she had to smile at the childlike gleam in his eyes.  "Really?  And you came all this way to tell me that.  You know I would have found a way to bug you again."

She steeled her nerves with one deep breath.  "I had an idea for a story actually."  She braced her hands on his shoulders and slipped from his desk into his lap.  "I was hoping you could help."

"I do owe you one," he said, his eyes darkening as his hands slid around her waist.  "Please let this be one of those really hot smutty ones."

She angled her chin to brush her lips over his.  "You tell me," she said.


End file.
